Vilhena is the easternmost municipality in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Its population was 102,211 (IBGE-2020) and its area is 11,519 km2. It is the fifth-largest city in Rondônia and has the best HDI in the state (0,771 – UNDP/2000). According to IBGE-2015, Vilhena also had a GDP of R$1.824.367,69(approximately US$460 million), which represented a GDP per capita of R$23.055,20 (around US$6.000,00) History In common with many other municipalities of Rondônia, Vilhena was started in the early twentieth century, around 1910, when Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon built telegraph posts in the fields of the Plateau Parecis, linking several cities between Cuiabá and Porto Velho. Towns often would rise around these posts, Vilhena included. Population growth Migration from southern and southeastern regions caused the population to increase in 1959 after the construction of highway BR-364, which connects the north with the rest of the country and was paved in 1986. The period in which the population rose more dramatically was the 1970s, as from 1964 many migrants from all over the country were attracted to the region because of the distribution of land to settlers by INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform). The region's wealth of wood in the forest sites and a healthy climate attracted many permanent residents, with a relevant participation of decedents from European migrants, who came firstly to the south of the country and were later attracted to this region by government incentives. Emancipation In April 1969, Vilhena became district capital of Porto Velho by decree No. 565. Vilhena, at that time, had about only 160 homes, with an estimated population of 800. Simultaneously, the office of Civil Registry and the Court of Peace were established. The first administrator of the district of Vilhena was Gilberto Barros de Lima, who held the district post from March 1973 to June 1977. Several sawmills were started at this time. On October 11, 1977, President Ernesto Geisel endorsed Law No. 6448, which broke down Vilhena of Porto Velho, being recognized as a city of Rondônia since then. Climate The climate is a transition between equatorial and tropical, hot and humid, with some short periods of cool weather from May to September, when the minimum temperature can reach 7 °C in the coolest days, but normally it stays around 12-16 °C. The rainy season runs from October to April. The average annual temperature is approximately 23 °C, with